Privacy

Privacy Policy

Thin Gold

Effective May 2026

The Short Version

Thin Gold collects as little data as possible. If you just read the site, nothing personally identifiable is tracked. If you subscribe to the daily briefing, your email address is stored to send it to you. That is the extent of it.

Analytics

Thin Gold uses three tools to understand what readers find valuable and to catch site errors. None of them are used for advertising, and none of them link your activity to a personal profile.

Vercel Analytics measures aggregate traffic: page view counts and referral sources. No cookies, no personally identifiable information, no behavioral profiles. Vercel's analytics privacy documentation
PostHog records anonymous behavioral analytics: which pages you visit, how you navigated to them, and which charts or links you interact with. This data informs editorial decisions about what to publish next. Sessions are sampled at 5% for playback so the editor can occasionally see how readers move through a piece. The Do-Not-Track browser setting is respected and form inputs are masked. PostHog's privacy documentation
Sentry captures application errors, with the technical context (stack trace, page, request) needed to debug them. It does not capture personally identifiable information by default. Sentry's privacy documentation

None of these tools share data with advertising networks.

Daily Briefing Subscribers

If you subscribe to the daily briefing, here is exactly what happens with your data:

What's collected: Your email address. Nothing else.
Where it's stored: Upstash Redis, a serverless database. Your email is hashed for storage; the raw address is used only for sending.
What it's used for: Sending the daily briefing via Resend (the email delivery service).
What's not done with it: Your email is never sold, shared, rented, or used for marketing beyond the briefing itself.

Subscription uses double opt-in: you submit your email, receive a confirmation message, and must click the link to activate. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of any briefing email.

Active subscriber records are retained while your subscription is active. Unsubscribed records are deleted within 3 years. Delivery metadata (send timestamps, recipient counts) contains no personal data and is retained for operational purposes.

Your Data, Your Call

You can request a copy of your subscriber data or permanently delete your record using the forms below. Requests are confirmed via email link. Deletion is permanent - there is no undo.

You can also email 2026GildedAge@proton.me for any data request. Expect a response within 30 days.

Local Storage

The site stores your theme preference, recent search queries, and content update tracking in your browser's localStorage. This data never leaves your device and is not sent to any server. Clear it any time through your browser settings.

Third-Party Services

An honest accounting of who handles what:

Vercel - Hosting and analytics. Sees IP addresses for CDN routing and collects aggregate page view data. No personal data is stored or shared. Privacy Policy
PostHog - Anonymous behavioral analytics. Receives page paths, click events, and 5%-sampled session recordings. Form inputs are masked; Do-Not-Track is honored. Privacy Policy
Sentry - Application error tracking. Receives stack traces and request context when something breaks on the site. Personally identifiable information is not sent. Privacy Policy
Upstash - Serverless Redis. Stores hashed subscriber email addresses and delivery metadata. Privacy Policy
Resend - Email delivery. Receives subscriber email addresses to send the daily briefing. Privacy Policy
Google Fonts - Typography. Your browser makes requests to Google's CDN to load fonts, which means Google sees IP addresses for those requests. No cookies are set. Privacy FAQ

None of these services receive data for advertising purposes.

Changes to This Policy

If this policy changes, the update will be noted in the site's update feed. No "we reserve the right to change this whenever we feel like it" - if something changes, you will know what and why.

Contact

Questions about this policy: 2026GildedAge@proton.me

Thin Gold is an independent publication. There is no dedicated data protection officer, legal department, or compliance team. There is one person who takes privacy seriously and will answer your email.

Request Your Data

Enter your email to receive a copy of your subscriber data.

Delete Your Data

Enter your email to permanently delete your subscriber record.

This will permanently delete your subscriber record after confirmation.